how is your workplace dealing with employees who have given up their childcare while WFH

[SunshineyDay1]

I have name changed for this but interested in people's opinions.

having convened a number of calls from 3-4pm, it is now clear to me that there are a lot of people who no longer have childcare at home. At work, we have a hybrid system but with the understanding that if you are needed in or at a certain time, you will be available. Last week we had a really important client call and 2 members of the team were clearly doing the school run at the same time.

I spoke to both afterwards and one said in a quite arsey fashion that 'everyone knows not to schedule calls between 3-4pm anymore' !!

we have another firm in the same building as us - a big listed company - and I was chatting to one of the managers there as they haven't compelled people to come back yet but are monitoring it and they said they have noticed the same thing and are having a meeting this week on how to deal with it.

I don't have young kids any more but do people really think this is acceptable? Surely if you have young children and have a job that is essentially 9-5 or thereabouts, you can't just dump the childcare and expect to be able to work as well as you did when you were in the office? what happens when workplaces compel people to come back?

just interested in how people are dealing with this

"Some people (including us) have no choice in after school care."
So, what would you do if you weren't permitted to work from home? And if you employer pointed out that it wasn't their problem to solve?

Meh.

My manager starts at 9:30 cos she hates mornings
I do the school two days a week but don't take lunch breaks.
My colleague does a straight 9-5.

We all pull our weight, do our hours and get the job done. They trust me, I trust them, what’s not to like?

How about workplaces actually start to support employees in a holistic sense, this is life, children need parenting and parents need to work. It dosen't need dealing with, it needs to be taken into account and supported.

The thing is, from an employer’s point of view there’s flexibility and there’s doing what’s right for the business. It can be hard to find a balance. And in my experience flexibility for one person often simply means someone else picking up their work, it rarely works out fairly across the board.

@CallmeHendricks

"Some people (including us) have no choice in after school care." So, what would you do if you weren't permitted to work from home? And if you employer pointed out that it wasn't their problem to solve?

One of us would have to give up work. DS has SEN and most SEN schools have no after school care. We are currently lucky enough that it's quite close. I work 0.6 but some days are busy so I can't really work just school hours. I am currently in the office 2 or 3 days. DH only has to go in about once a fortnight. We have a babysitter who can do a couple of pickups a week but we do have to have him home while we are working quite often and he isn't good at not interrupting.

I had a formal flexible working arrangement before Covid, I was also offered WFH but turned it down.

I do the school run 3 days a week, this is my flexible working arrangement. It means I am out from 2.30 to 3.30, but I’m happy to take calls from 2.30 to 3 (on my way to school) and will take some calls on the way back (if they won’t mind my 11 year old being in the car)

I work considerably in excess of my contractual hours.

I can swap school run days. In fact, on one day last term my 16 year old collected his sister on the bus to allow me to attend a meeting when DH couldn’t pick up. In fact this morning I reminded my boss that I can usually be flexible on my school run days, mainly because I know she tries not to ask me.

My 11 year old became very independent quickly during Covid, she didn’t want to eat at the same times as me, she learnt to make sandwiches, toasted sandwiches, microwave leftovers and cook noodles. She’ll now make me a drink if I’m working. I agree it’s harder with younger kids.

I haven’t used after school club since my youngest started school. But I regularly use breakfast club to buy me an extra hour, either to get ahead on the day, or previously because I had to travel. A 12 hour day isn’t a rarity. And on holiday earlier this month, I worked almost a whole day to complete month end reporting that no-one else knew how to do.

As long as it works both ways, it works.

I think it's generally fine for people to take their "lunch hour" between 3-4 so they can collect their kids from school.

But if you have an important client meeting between 3-4 then you have to make other arrangements, I would have thought that was common sense if it is likely you will be asked to attend client meetings.

So yes, I think words need to be had.

However, years ago when I didn't have a client facing role at all, and I worked from home one day a week and did do the school run (5 min walk in my case) I was asked if I could do a client meeting one afternoon. I did ask if it could be done on a different day/different time the same day because of childcare issues and I know my boss raised it with HR (because I saw something on her computer screen). She never said anything to me though and I wonder if HR told her to leave it as it was a one-off and client meetings were not generally part of my role, and I did do the meeting earlier that day.

My current employer has a team meeting each Monday morning. It used to be at 9, but was moved to 9.30 so those doing the school run could attend. And that was shortly before covid.

I think the thing that would annoy me here was the arsey reply "who arranges meetings between 3-4". That's cheeky.

It's very much accepted now. I make my mornings meeting heavy and leave the afternoons more free. I find so long as people are aware of one another's circumstances this works - ultimately I'm still delivering well in my role and my day can stretch into the evening to make it all work. We are international and so there are very few slots overall where 'everyone' can attend anyway.

@HunterHearstHelmsley

I spoke to both afterwards and one said in a quite arsey fashion that 'everyone knows not to schedule calls between 3-4pm anymore' !!

This doesn't work in practice. No meetings pre 10am, because some haven't started work. No meetings between 11 and 2 because of lunch breaks. No meetings after 4pm because some have finished work. That leaves 2 hours for meetings. When you're trying to arrange a lot of popple to attend its just not practical.

.....and then add a few different time zones! My next whole team meeting is at 5am...eugh.

My next whole team meeting is at 5am...eugh.
I struck lucky with a US, far East, and Australia team once, the time we picked was 11 am UK time.

@HunterHearstHelmsley

The problem with flexibility a lot of the time is that realistically not everyone can have it. There always has to be someone there to allow the others to be flexible. As soon as that person(s) isn't there, there is uproar.

Agreed. Then when suddenly the ‘reliable one’ (me at my work) can’t be available for a legitimate reason like being sick they’re the one that cops all the flack.